Conceptual Model and Hypotheses

Good quality research is only possible, when good measures are used, or else as frequently cited you suffer from: “GIGO - garbage in, garbage out” (Churchill, 1979, p. 64). Churchill (1979) established a well-known procedure for marketing research highlighting the importance of measurement development by understanding the constructs from the literature and even exceeding these. An iterative process is recommended to understand the constructs and measures and how these are linked (Boateng, Neilands, Frongillo, Melgar-Quiñonez, & Young, 2018; Churchill, 1979). Due to its nomothetic, construct-based character, Commitment-Trust Theory seems to be appropriate for this research. The initial literature review is the starting point for this process and was discussed earlier in chapter 3 by introducing the original constructs of the KMV model. The adapted constructs are explained in detail in this chapter. For this purpose, definitions for all constructs are identified and used for their operationalisation. Within this chapter, firstly, the conceptual model is presented (4.2) followed by an explanation of its development (4.3). It describes the proposed antecedents and outcome of fan loyalty and trust in a supporter crowdfunding setting. Chapter 4.4 deals with the individual constructs – antecedents, mediators and output variable. All constructs are specified and defined using the existing literature (4.4). Thereafter, the hypotheses are developed (4.5). A rival model approach is used in this thesis as recommended by Hair, Black, Babin, and Anderson (2014) and Morgan and Hunt (1994) Hence, the two rival models are briefly presented in sub chapter 4.6.